Whether $13/hr is enough is less relevant than whether an increase would result in more people living on unemployment or student allowances. Better to have a low paid job and a chance to retrain, less of the pay taken out as tax, and some of it being saved as well. Means that government has to reduce spending and taxes.

Qualified in business, certified in fibre, stuck in copper, have to keep going ^_^

the award system works well, there is ways to buck the system but for the most part it is a good system.

Is $13 livable? yes but like you say it is tight, isn't that an incentive to work harder to get out of the minimum wage?

What happens when it goes to $15 an hour?

The prices go up, the supermarkets, mcd's etc need to make up the extra money somewhere.

So $15 an hour is worth less than $13 an hour was, everything inflates by that amount.

all Labour are doing is appealing their demographic to get votes, they have no care about running the country efficiently.

Minimum wage is important there needs to be one, and it does need to keep up with inflation, all wages do, but it cant have huge leaps like Labour like to do it is counter productive for the whole country.

Exactly!

As someone who visits places that pay minimum wage, I have also noticed that a hell of a lot of them also do minimum work too.

They/most don't complain about their wage because it went up and they don't do any extra and don't want to. If they wanted more, they wouldn't be on minimum because they'd either try harder to show they deserved a payrise, or up-skill!

Imagine if it went up $2? FFS, everything you eat would go up instantly just so a trolley-boy could get $80 a week more! (based on 40hrs)Who'd be paying? EVERYONE would, and I don't know about many here, but my last payrise was $0.35 in a year... the one before was $0.31. That isn't enough to pay the petrol price rises, let alone a trolley boy getting an extra $2. So then my family have to eat less, I have to do more hours and everyone suffers.

If they get $2ph, are Labour going to give ME $2ph? Of course not, I'm not their target... After all, I work between 65-70hrs a week for above minimum because I worked effin hard to NOT be a minimum wage slave and got myself some skills. Of course, my skills aren't enough to get me $2 an hour more, but having no skills is? BS!

A lot of people don't understand what a real minimum wage job unskilled job is, they have little or no chance of a wage rise, no matter how hard you work.

The supermarkets are making more profits than ever, so it should not be hard to give a little more to the people that are helping them to make the money.

National has done nothing in creating new jobs or even training/educating people to get the skills needed for the job market. There policy is a lets pray that everything will get better and there will be 170000 new jobs.

hellonearthisman: A lot of people don't understand what a real minimum wage job unskilled job is, they have little or no chance of a wage rise, no matter how hard you work.

National has done nothing in creating new jobs or even training/educating people to get the skills needed for the job market. There policy is a lets pray that everything will get better and there will be 170000 new jobs.

One only has to do a search in Wellington on seek or trade me to realise there are hardly any jobs out there.That goes for the job agency's to.

For those still in denial that believe all the spin from this Key government please watch the video.

But it this way, the local pub is looking for a new bar manger - he is offering barely above minimum wage, you need at least 5 years experience, prepared to travel at least 40mins in and out everyday and have all the correct licenses.

He got 500 applications - 300 of which were from Christchurch.(we are in Dunedin)